good people

My parents always monitored who I was hanging around when I was growing up. They knew what I did not know. The reason you are known by the company you keep is because you generally fall into doing things with the people you hang around that you may not do otherwise. It could be good things that your good friends draw you into, but more often than not, it's the stupid stuff you wouldn't do on your own that friends convince you will be fun. I know I never would have sneaked outside to shoot toys with a BB gun without the encouragement of my friends, but then I never would have taken that sweet ride in the back of a cop car back to my friend's house. So now I get it. Friends can make you do stupid things.

I'll make enough mistakes on my own. I don't need encouragement from anyone else to screw up, and I really don't need to take the blame for someone else's mistakes. If I keep company with other great, Godly people, I will be better for it. I think Jesus modeled this for us. Obviously, He didn't surround Himself with good people to keep Himself from messing up, but He wasn't noted for doing things to benefit Himself anyway. He was always doing things for us and modeling things that we could follow, cause He loves us. That's why He's in my inner circle. Actually, so is Josh. He was one of the ones that encouraged me to go outside with the BB gun. "It'll be okay," he said. Whatever. At least I didn't shoot my eye out.

Do you keep an inner circle? Are you better at picking one than Ulysses S. Grant or perhaps Kwame Kilpatrick?